Confessing my Childhood: Carlos Eire’s Waiting for Snow in Havana

Join Collegium Institute and Dappled Things for our online Global Catholic Literature Seminar on Carlos Eire’s Waiting for Snow in Havana. This year is the 20th anniversary of the National Book Award winning memoir by the renowned historian. The memoir is a powerful depiction of a childhood amidst the sudden changes and upheavals of revolutionary Cuba. Faced by the cruelties and wonders of childhood, Eire recalls the tortuousness of the human heart and human society. We will read the novel in light of the tradition of confessional literature extending back to Augustine’s Confessions.

In this seminar, we will explore the text’s depictions of childhood, sin, confession, and the presence of Christ in the midst of our tumultuous path through the earthly city. In considering the memoir, we will explore a variety of questions. How do we understand the literary nature of memoir? What does it mean to describe a memoir as Catholic? How does our childhood form us as persons? What is the meaning of confession in the Catholic literary tradition?

Registration Fees & Deadlines:

To register for this series click here and make sure you use our discount code DTSummer23 for $15 off!

Early Bird Registration ends Friday May, 12 at 11:59pm: $65

Regular Registration ends Friday, May 26: $75

Details for the series

Our series will feature two sessions with the author himself, Carlos Eire, who is the T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University. In addition to his National Book Award winning memoir, he is the author or co-author of 8 other books focusing especially on the history of Christianity in early modern Europe.

The series will be led by Katy Carl, Novelist and Editor-in Chief of Dappled Things, and will also feature among its session leaders Dr. Terence Sweeney, a scholar of St. Augustine and Theologian-in-Residence at the Collegium Institute, and Bernardo Aparicio García, the founder and publisher of Dappled Things who is completing a family memoir of Colombia.

We will meet four Monday evenings in June, 7:00-8:30pm ET on Zoom.

  • June 5

  • June 12

  • June 19

  • June 26

Collegium Institute will provide copies of the book to all participants in the United States. International participants are welcome to join, but please note that we can't guarantee that we will be able to send you a copy of the text if you live outside of the US.

Mary R. Finnegan

After several years working as a registered nurse in various settings including the operating room and the neonatal ICU, Mary works as a freelance editor and writer. Mary earned a BA in English, a BS in Nursing, and is currently pursuing her MFA in creative Writing at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. Mary’s poetry, essays, and stories can be found in Ekstasis, Lydwine Journal, American Journal of Nursing, Catholic Digest, Amethyst Review, and elsewhere. She is Deputy Editor at Wiseblood Books.

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